Bridge Coating Firm Fined for Lead

Atlas Steel Coatings Inc. president Louis Alfieri said Tuesday (Jan. 27) that his company would contest the citations and fines announced Monday (Jan. 26) by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“Our tests concluded that at no time on the project, were Atlas employees exposed at or above the PEL,”Alfieri said. “Our tests also concluded that no employee’s blood lead level came close to the PEL before, during, or after blasting on the project.”

OSHA inspected the site, the Philema Road Bridge in Albany, GA, on July 23 in response to a complaint about conditions there.

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OSHA is alleging a variety of serious lead hazards on a bridge rehab project in Albany, GA.

Atlas Steel is rehabbing the bridge, according to OSHA. No other project information was immediately available.

Not requiring employees who wear their own PPE to remove it before leaving the site;

Lack of lead training for abrasive blasters and employees doing lead removal; and

Lack of engineering controls and vacuuming in abrasive blasting containment.

Other-than-serious citations allege failure to conduct forklift training and failure to notify workers in writing of their blood lead test results within five days.

Serious violations reflect life-threatening hazards about which the employer knew or should have known.

Taking Lead Home

“This employer not only exposed its workers to unsafe levels of lead but it also failed to take any precautions required to prevent workers from transferring lead contamination to their homes or families,” said Robert Vazzi, director of OSHA’s Savannah Area Office.